Greek Sex: Hearing It for The Boys

Mention Greek sex and the mind usually veers off in one particular, obvious direction. This brief essay will certainly address Greek attitudes to male beauty and homosexuality, but that's only one aspect of a fascinating range of responses the Greeks had to the physical act of love. There was Sappho, of course, and the Thebans and their Sacred Band. There was Helen and Paris and Troy. There was Corinth, noted as perhaps the most wicked city in the Mediterranean until the Romans got fed up with them. And there was Sparta, a city that simply did everything it could differently.

However, before getting to the meat it's necessary to outline some parameters. The first thing to note is that there wasn't one 'Greek civilisation', but two. The first comprised the Minoans on Crete, and the Mycenaeans on the Greek mainland. These two cultures were different, but linked (as far as we can tell). This first civilisation was the one famous for scantily clad youths somersaulting over bulls in the palace at Knossos, and the Labyrinth containing the Minotaur beneath it, and the Trojan War -- surely the most famous conflict of Antiquity. This civilisation lasted until roughly 1200 BCE (BC for those counting in 'old' time) when the Greek world collapsed through a succession of disasters and a Dark Age began.

The second Greek civilisation emerged roughly three to four centuries after the first had collapsed, and it is this civilisation that brought us the philosophy, democracy, the literature and scientific enquiry that Ancient Greece is famed for. They were also largely (but not wholly) responsible for the ideas of sex in Ancient Greece that have come down to us. The new Greeks were largely that, newcomers, as much as we can tell. They appear to have been folk who migrated down the western side of the Black Sea into Greece over the course of the Greek Dark Age and settled.

However, an important thing to note is that these people took on the older stories and mythology as part of their own history, and believed themselves to be descended from the Greeks of old. And some of them probably were, too, through the maternal line -- it being a generally observed process that migrating tribes displaced the males in an area, but formed partnerships with the women and produced hybrid offspring. This process has been noted through DNA studies across Europe enough now to suggest that it was the normal process of migration, and that it probably applied in this case, too.

The other main issue to note about the Greeks is that they were widely spread geographically, with a diaspora extending across the Mediterranean and Black Sea, and there were some differences between them depending on location. There were also some differences amongst the Greeks due to the time in which they lived, even during the second Greek civilisation. A final point to note is that the Macedonians, who largely destroyed Greek independence under Philip II and Alexander the Great, were not thought of as 'true' Greeks by their contemporaries, but for the purposes of this essay they will be included.

A last point that will help the reader understand what follows is that there was never one single Greek nation or state. Ancient Greece was politically fragmented into city-states and petty kingdoms, though these entities shared a common language and cultural understanding. Most Greek energies in the field of 'international' relations were actually directed towards rival Greek entities rather than non-Greek ones -- the wars against Troy and Persia being the notable exceptions prior to the Macedonian expansion.

Greek society was patriarchal, naturally, as basically all societies since the beginning of agriculture have been patriarchal. But Greek patriarchy towards women was on another level. I have noted in a previous essay that the Roman paterfamilias wielded awesome power over his children, to the point that his married daughter was still supposed to put his interests first, rather than her husband's. Thus, the Roman man did not have quite the same power over his wife, who was still in Daddy's pocket. Further, whilst society had an expectation that Roman women would behave modestly, there wasn't an expectation that they wouldn't even be seen or heard. Enter the Greeks.

Athens is generally seen in the West as the originator of many of our most dearly held concepts: the participation of the people in their own government, the philosophical concepts that underpin much of our modern outlook, the foundation of modern scientific enquiry, and the styles of art and statuary that you will see simply by glancing around you (should you live in any medium sized metropolis) all have their origin in Athens, firstly, and then through the Greek world. Furthermore, many of our modern ideas of drama; tragedy, satire and hubris found their first expression through Athenian playwrights. So far, so good. But now for the downside...

There were two groups who were excluded from all this good stuff. The first was slaves, but they were excluded pretty much everywhere (there is an argument, though outside the scope of this essay, that in some ways Greek slaves had it worse). The other group was women. Athenian wives and daughters inhabited a world in which they were not expected to be seen in public, and their names were not to be mentioned. All the fancy education and democracy and drama that was swirling around Athens was very strictly men only, whilst women were basically kept in the dark, dumb and chained to the hearth.

So, does that mean that the Athenian men preferred the other men around them? Not necessarily, but there are strong arguments to confirm that proposition. Prior to the establishment of Athenian democracy the city was ruled by tyrants (which had a less pejorative meaning than it does today), and an event which led to the establishment of the democracy surrounded a gay love triangle indirectly involving a tyrant. The noblemen Harmodius and Aristogeiton were lovers, but Hipparchus, brother of the tyrant Hippias, wanted Harmodius for himself. Recognising that it was dangerous to reject such a powerful man, Harmodius and Aristogeiton decided that they had to assassinate him instead. They succeeded, though it cost them their lives, and it fatally weakened the rule of Hippias.

There were, of course, many other examples of gay love in Ancient Greece, some of which will be examined here. Probably the most famous was that between Achilles and Patroclus in the Trojan War, but others include the Theban Sacred Band, a crack military unit in the city-state of Thebes comprised of 150 pairs of male lovers. There was also Sparta, in which it was expected that, as part of the insanely rigorous military training free Spartan men were put through, an older warrior would take a younger man (generally someone younger than Lit rules are happy about) as a lover. The practice, known as pederasty, was in part aimed at providing the younger man with a last part of his education, and access to forms of influence, in addition to sex for both parties.

Pederasty was also known in other parts of the Greek world, though it is thought that, other than in Sparta, it was a practice restricted largely to the rich. Attitudes might differ even amongst this class, too, though the criticisms of contemporary Greeks might also have been founded on the interminable rivalry certain entities had for each other (Athens versus Sparta and Thebes, Sparta versus Argos and Athens, Thebes versus everyone).

The final, famous Greek example of male homosexuality involved that most famous Greek, Alexander the Great. Alexander is often thought of as a sleek, beautiful young man. This is far from the truth: as part of the Macedonian warrior caste he indulged in their excessive drinking culture, and through that may have been a high-functioning alcoholic. As a commander he led from the front on every occasion he could, suffering numerous wounds (some of which were serious) -- thus, his body probably resembled something of a road map. By the time of his death at thirty-two, then, a man who might once have been something of a looker was almost certainly a bit of a wreck. He still had his great passion, though, Hephaestion, one of his cavalry commanders. Hephaestion died a year before Alexander, and his grief was overwhelming -- strong enough that it has generally been assumed from then on that they were lovers.

Not all gay relationships were founded on an age gap, or had a military foundation, and there are long-term homosexual relationships attested from Thebes (where a law supported long-term gay male unions) and Athens. In other places, however, notably Sparta, the gay relationship was considered to have ended on the marriage of the younger man -- until, that is, the younger man then aged, became a veteran, and chose his own younger lover.

When considering Greek homosexuality, it is important to remember that the Greeks defined themselves not by the gender of the person they were in a physical relationship with (be it a short or long relationship), but by whether they were the active or passive partner. Thus, a man on top was alpha, a leader, a tough guy, whilst a passive partner was a wimp, weak and easily denigrated by an outsider to the relationship. This division might be reinforced by an age gap, or one of status such as sex between a free man and a slave. These simple divisions were not universal, however, and the Theban Sacred Band, for instance, was composed only of tough guys, regardless of whether they were top, bottom or switch, whilst the Spartans hardly expected the junior man in a gay union to be anything other than a remorseless killing machine.

One result of the widespread acceptance of male homosexuality amongst the Greeks was their complementary focus on the body beautiful, particularly male beauty. There are countless examples of sculptures and vase paintings depicting naked men, some in sexual positions, and one of the main gods of the Greek pantheon was Apollo, the beautiful youth. Some illustrations include women, but the bulk are of men, and one thing that is not clear is how widespread these vases were amongst the general population.

Certainly, one type of vase, the krater, was designed to be placed in the centre of a type of drinking party known as a symposium. The symposium was a men-only event, and it may well be that erotic vases were particularly to be seen at these events, at which men in sexual relationships might be present (there are examples of wall paintings illustrating male sexual activity at such events). However, such vases probably spread further, perhaps particularly when depicting martial or mythological themes, though it is possible that as few as two or three percent of vases had sexual illustrations. There was also a roaring export trade so some erotic vases surely found their way to other, contemporary, cultures (Rome, Egypt and Persia in particular would seem to be prime markets for such material). Alongside vases drinking cups might also carry erotic imagery.

Vase paintings in particular can give us a window into the sexual practices of the Greeks, and penetration seems to have been the primary goal of sex, rather than oral sex, though oral sex is certainly present, particularly amongst men. There are also depictions of multiple partner sex, mostly threesomes but including orgies, with the passive partners being both male and female. Sado-masochism also features in some examples, and some passive male participants might be intended as prisoners of war being violated. The usual range of sexual positions are displayed, with rear entry and cowboy/girl seemingly preferred.

So much for male homosexuality, but what about women? Here the evidence is less certain, despite the fact the Greeks literally gave us our common term for women who love women: The sexual derivation of Lesbian (as opposed to the geographical one) came from the poet Sappho who lived on the Aegean island of Lesbos until possibly exiled to Sicily later in her life. Her work, of which an estimated 5% survives, focuses on romantic desire for women, and also suggests that this desire was not necessarily unrequited. Quite how many Greek women engaged in lesbian activities (and whether even Sappho did) is unclear, but one other piece of evidence we have (and which is far less ambiguous) is that of young Spartan women.

Spartan girls were put through an educational process just as their brothers were, though the process was far less demanding (or potentially fatal). The young women were complimented if they were attractive, and competed in a dance, the aim of which was to slap ones' heels against one's buttocks. Both the young men and the young women were expected to undergo their training naked, or nearly so, thus showing themselves to potential lovers or either sex, and their training would have been observed by older members of the citizen body.

The young women were also encouraged to mock the physical attributes of the naked young men, who would have been able to look at the attractive young women humiliating them, and presumably further mocking them for any physical reactions they displayed. It doesn't take a genius to imagine the psycho-sexual implications of such a process. There are also strong indications that homosexuality was seen as a normal part of the process until women married. As evidence of this love poems and songs meant to be sung or perhaps chanted have been preserved from the period of Sparta's ascendency (Fourth Century BCE). These songs have as their object a woman, perhaps one who is older than the one reciting the song, who was also a woman.

Spartan marriage itself was a strange process, with the young women having their hair cut short to look like boys, following which they were smuggled into the bed of their new husband -- a man who had previously been publicly humiliated by women for his physical deficiencies, real or supposed. Therapists would have had a field day...

This all seems to suggest that heterosexual sex was not the first choice of at least the men, as does the fact that the husband continued to live in barracks with the other men and had to sneak home to engage in further bouts of sex with his new wife. It's a wonder any new Spartans were born at all, and indeed there are strong suggestions that a low birth rate was one of the key structural factors behind Sparta's decline. Needless to say, for the rest of the Greeks Sparta was both scandalous and fascinating, and the forwardness of Spartan women was notorious.

However, whilst we might conclude that Sparta was only reluctantly heterosexual, and then only part of the time, and that homosexuality was accepted across the rest of the Greek world, there is one place which appears to have been heterosexual first and foremost: Corinth. In terms of fucking and the arts, Corinth was a real leader in the Greek world. In particular, Corinth was renowned for its sex workers, mostly, but not solely women. The women, known as 'hetairas', were attached to temples, and their activities may have had a ritual function. There is some modern academic disagreement as to the nature, and even the existence, of temple prostitutes, however it is probably best to assume that they did exist in some form, particularly given that even up until 150 years ago to call a woman a Corinthian was to call her a sex worker.

A natural question at this point is whether these women were free or unfree. The prostitution of slaves was widespread across the Greek world, and was clearly a particularly horrible duty of the unfree. Given that free adult women were sequestered in most Greek states, and that adultery legally entitled the wronged man to kill his rival, it follows that those unmarried Greek men (or men who found their wives unappealing for whatever reason) who wanted to engage in heterosexual sex were limited to visiting brothels or looking within their own families. We have no evidence of incestuous relationships (outside mythological ones), and considering that men weren't usually married until about the age of thirty, it follows that a horny Greek man under that age would head to a brothel and fuck a slave. Whether the Corinthian temple prostitutes were also unfree is not clear, but it is logical that they were -- otherwise there would have been male relatives killing clients left and right throughout the city.

Moving on from individual sex working slaves, even in brothel groups or as temple prostitutes, we come to an entire slave society -- the Helots, possibly originally free Greeks, or descendants of the first Greek civilisation enslaved by the incomers to Sparta. The Helots were the serfs on whose backs Sparta was built, and they were subjugated as a matter of state policy. Particularly relevant here, however, is one group of people within the Spartan state known as 'nothoi', who were the offspring of Spartan citizen fathers and Helot women. It is not known whether the nothoi were born of voluntary unions, though we can speculate that even if the fathers were participating out of choice, rather than on state orders, the mothers probably weren't for most part. This tends to reinforce the view that women were lesser humans to the Greeks, even to the Spartans, who otherwise elevated citizen women above any other women in the Greek world.

One last group of women needs to be considered: the Amazons. They did not, of course, exist in the way that the Greeks would have each other believe, though archaeological excavations over the previous century or so have discovered what might be women warriors on the Central Asian steppe. Whether the women were actual warriors, or had a status that was validated by interment with warrior accoutrements after death we cannot be certain, however it is probable that Greek stories of the Amazons came from these nomadic groups, known collectively as the Scythians. What is important, however, is not the truth of warrior women in Central Asian nomadic societies, but what the Greeks said about these women, and in particular their barely concealed horror of them: suffice to say it was necessary to get a handy hero or two to vanquish them, and show them that their proper place was in subservience to men rather than fighting against them.

Greek legends and mythology, rather than simple history, also provides us with women who rose above their subservient role in mainstream Greek life. The first of those, a woman who might have been real, was the famous Helen, the Spartan princess so beautiful that her adultery with Paris the Trojan launched a thousand ships (the Greek war fleet which then attacked Troy). Contemporary with Helen, who seems to have had a particularly wonderful night of sex on a beach under the stars, were priestesses in Crete. The evidence we have for these women is limited to statuettes, but they seem to have had real power, and may have engaged in rituals topless.

Turning to the Greek pantheon there are three goddesses who depart from the usual Greek misogyny: Athena, Aphrodite and Artemis. Athena was a goddess of war, a strictly male activity, but took precedence over the male war god Ares due to her superior intelligence, as opposed to the brute force associated with Ares. Interestingly, Athena was the victim of an attempted sexual assault, though her response was contemptuous. One other strange juxtaposition is that of Athena being the patron deity of Athens, that most vocally misogynist of all the Greek states.

Aphrodite was, of course, the goddess of love, and was noted for her infidelities with, amongst others, Ares the war god and Adonis, supposedly the perfectly beautiful man. Artemis was the goddess of hunting, also a traditionally male activity, and was ready to take vengeance on men who crossed her at the drop of a hat. These goddesses were beyond the control of men, and largely beyond the control of male deities, too.